Dog found nursing kitten duo now in ‘forever home’

An Upstate dog and kitten duo stirred up lots of attention after they were found by Anderson County Animal Control back in May.

They were found down a ravine, behind Home Depot, and the dog was nursing the kitten.

The Anderson County PAWS Shelter kept the pair at their facility, until the kitten was old enough to be spayed. Their staff vetted all potential owners carefully. It’s been a month since they’ve settled into their new home, and they’re doing great.

While at PAWS, staff named the dog Goldie, and the kitten Kate, after celebrity mother and daughter Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson. And online sharing is on track to make the dog and cat almost as famous as the actresses they’re named for.

After their first on-camera debut on FOX Carolina, the Shih Tzu mix and weeks-old kitten landed on web sites across the world, from local news in Philadelphia and San Diego, to Yahoo and FOX News, animal blogs and the UK’s Metro News.

A Buzzfeed link was shared 88,000 times on Facebook, with more than 430,000 likes.

PAWS said that people have called every day, from as far away as California and England, asking if they could adopt Goldie and Kate, but they’ve already found a home.

Joe Harris and his wife, of Fountain Inn, call themselves lucky to have been able to adopt the duo.

Harris said they saw the two on FOX Carolina after they were found, and submitted an application with a “tear jerker of a letter.”

He said Goldie and Kate reminded them of their former dog and cat, Samantha and Simon, who passed within two months of each other in 2012.

“It’s a lot of fun watching the two of them,” said Harris.

They’ve been the center of attention, with friends and family. The Harris’ grandsons get a kick out of watching Goldie and Kate wrestle.

Harris said they still do what they were first famous for, Goldie nursing Kate as her own, when Kate was just a few weeks old. He said at night Kate still tries to nurse on Goldie, and that Goldie lets her.

Harris knows the two have been through a lot, though no one knows how they got together.

“Goldie adopted Kate, and we adopted both of them,” Harris said.

He has created a Facebook page for the pair, under the name “Goldie N Kate Doe.”

Anderson County PAWS staff said that since Buzzfeed posted about the two, they have had even more people call in trying to adopt them.

While Goldie and Kate have found new homes, PAWS said they have around 400 animals at their shelter on any given day, 100 to 200 of them are available for adoption.